"Mine," I said half wonderingly, and then I grasped what it meant. "Did that syce, Lieutenant Barton's man, bring this just now?"

"Yes, sahib. Ny Deen."

"That will do," I said; and I lay back thinking of the morning when I saw the man come out of Barton's quarters bleeding, and bound up the cut.

"A set of black scoundrels, are they," I said to myself. "Well, some of them have feeling, and a way of showing their gratitude."

I took up and smelt the fragrant white blossoms thoughtfully; and then I remember saying to myself, for those events were stamped pretty deeply in my memory—

"An Englishman would never have dreamed of sending flowers like that. I dare say it means something, if one only knew."

A few days after, when I had almost forgotten the incident, save that I always politely returned Ny Deen's salute when I passed him, I was returning to my quarters one evening, when—not at all an uncommon thing—I heard loud voices in front, and saw that three of our men were going unsteadily along, evidently after too long a stay at one of the wretched places where they were supplied with the poisonous arrack which was answerable for the miserable death of so many British soldiers. One of the men in particular was in that noisy, excited state when reason seems to have run riot, and folly and madness have been taken for companions.

The man's two companions were greatly under the influence of drink, but they had sense enough left to try and control their drunken friend; and as I kept back unseen in the darkness, I saw them check the fellow when an insane desire had come upon him to kick and hammer at the officers' quarters; and later on they engaged in a struggle, when he swore that he would go and let loose every horse in the troop.

All this made me so indignant with the idiot that I was several times on the point of interfering, but I thought that nature would punish the fellow enough the next day, and kept back, waiting to see the others get him to his quarters.

But, in spite of my determination, I found myself unexpectedly dragged into the affair; for, just as they were near Lieutenant Barton's quarters, two of the syces' wives came by, and with a shout the man escaped from his comrades' grasp, made a rush at the two frightened women, and caught one of them in his arms.

She cried aloud for help, and a couple of the native servants rushed out; one of them seizing the drunken gunner, and, in the brief struggle which ensued, I saw the two women run away, while their assailant held on to one of the white-clothed men, and, steadying himself, began striking him savagely, while the syce made no resistance, but passively received the blows.

"The fool!" I said to myself, as I hurried up, thinking that if it had been an Englishman instead of a native, our drunken gunner would have received a severe thrashing. I did not pause to consider any consequences, but just watched my opportunity, and as the Englishman struck the syce heavily with his right hand, as he held the poor fellow with his left, I, too, delivered a stinging blow, as I ran in, right in the gunner's ear, and then stood astonished at what I had done. For the next moment the fellow had gone down heavily, his head striking against a stone, and then he rolled over and lay still, with the syce standing close by looking on.

"You've killed him, sir," said one of the man's comrades, as he went down on one knee by his side and raised his head.

"Serve the brute right," I said passionately.

"Yes; he's pretty bad," growled the other, as he, too, bent down over his comrade, the affair having pretty well sobered them, as it had sobered me, too; for a chill of horror ran through me at the very thought of the man's words being true.

"Here, you," I said roughly; "go and tell the sergeant of the guard. What, you in trouble again, Ny Deen?"

"Yes, sahib," said the syce softly, for I had recognised Barton's groom.

He ran off quickly, and the sergeant and a couple of men came up just as Barton was returning to his quarters.

"Hillo! what's up?" he said; "an accident?"

"No," I said shortly; "this drunken fellow was insulting our women, and then ill-using your syce for protecting them, and I knocked him down."

"And you have done it, sir," grumbled the sergeant. "I'm afraid he isn't going to come to."

Barton bent down over the man, who, I now saw, by a stable-lantern, was bleeding from the head, and the chill of horror increased as the lieutenant rose.

"Here," he said; "carry him into hospital. Be smart. You, sergeant, go and rouse up the doctor."

"Yes, sir;" and the men hurried off.

"He'll be pleased," said Barton to me, with a cynical laugh. "He has had nothing but cholera cases and a broken arm to see to for months. But, I say, Don Quixote, you've put your foot in it this time."

"Enough to make me." I cried petulantly. "I can't stand by and see men such brutes."

We stopped and saw the insensible man carried into the building used as an infirmary, and by that time the doctor, who had been dining with Major Lacey—Brace being of the party—came into the building, and was followed by the above-named officers, who looked on in silence till the surgeon made his report.

"Concussion of the brain, I'm afraid," he said shortly. "Bad for a man in his state. This fellow is always on the drink. He must have fallen very heavily. Was he fighting?"

"Yes—no," I said, rather confusedly.

"Not very clear, Vincent," said the major. "Which was he doing?"

"The fact is, sir, he was brutally ill-using one of the syces, who did not dare to defend himself, and I knocked the fellow down."

"Oh!" said the major, coldly; and he walked away, but turned back.

"You had better go to your quarters, sir," he said. "I suppose we can do you no good, Danby?"

"No; thanks. Only let me have the nurse. Place will be cooler without company."

I went to my quarters, feeling as if the whole of my military career had come to an end through my passionate, quixotic behaviour; and yet somehow I could not deeply regret my action.

I was sitting in my dim room, watching the moths and flies circling round the shaded lamp, when I received a summons to go to the major's quarters, and on going across I found Brace there, and the doctor.

"This is a serious matter, Vincent," said the major. "Dr Danby gives a very bad account of this man's state. How did it all happen? Tell me everything."

I explained all the circumstances, and then there was a pause. I glanced at Brace, who sat there in the shade, so that I could not see his face, and a curious sensation of misery attacked me as I began to think of court-martials, and dismissal, or resignation, if there were no worse punishment, and my brain had already pictured the man's death, with the following military funeral, and volleys fired over the grave, when the major said—

"We must wait and see how this matter turns out, Vincent. It will be a most painful thing for me to report at head-quarters. But I will say no more to-night, only to warn you that you are too quixotic."

That word again! How I did loathe it then.

"I have a great objection myself to seeing the natives beaten, and I have more than once punished men for it; but it will not do for a junior officer like you to take upon yourself the defence of every black whom you consider ill-used. There, sir; you can return to your quarters. No, no, don't say anything to-night. Go back, and think of what I have said. Going, Brace?"

"Yes," said the captain, rising. "I'll walk back with Vincent: you don't want me any longer. I'll see Danby again to-night, and hear how the man is going on."

A minute later I was walking across in the darkness, with Brace, waiting for him to speak, and listening to the regular tramp of the sentry near us, and the softer sound of another at a distance, like an echo of the one by the officers' quarters.

But we had reached my quarters, and still Brace did not speak.

"Good night," I said, coldly.

"I am very sorry, Vincent," he said, ignoring my extended hand; and I felt, more than ever, that we never could be friends.

"Then you think I have done very wrong?" I said bitterly.

"Yes, very wrong. As an officer, you had no right to strike one of the men."

"Then you would have me stand by and see the poor fellows about us struck, kicked, and insulted, until it is beyond bearing," I cried passionately. "I declare I wonder sometimes that they don't rise up against us, and put an end to the cruel oppression from which they suffer."

"Hush!" he said gravely. "You are letting your tongue get the better of your discretion, Vincent. You, a young officer, can only amend these ways by your example. You must see, when you are cooler, that you have been guilty of a grave breach of discipline. I am speaking as your brother-officer, who sincerely wishes to see you rise in the profession you have chosen. We have been thrown together, and I hoped, by my experience, to help you—one so much younger—living, as you are, among strangers. It is not a pleasant task, Vincent, for I cannot help seeing that you resent my interference often, and think me cold, hard, and unsympathetic. There, good night for the present. I will come on later, and report how the man is."

He turned on his heel, and I stood listening to the tramp of his feet till he turned in to his own quarters, while I sat down to think, after telling the servants to go to bed.

It was a miserable night for me. The window was open, and the hot wind came in, making me feel so low and depressed, that life was almost unbearable. There was the ping, ping, ping, of the mosquitoes, and the piteous wailing shriek of the jackals as they hunted in a pack, and there, too, was the monotonous tramp of the sentry, hour after hour.

"Asleep, Vincent?"

I started from a nap to see the open window a little darker.

"No. I have been dozing. How is he?"

"I have just come from the hospital. There is no concealing the fact, my lad, that he is very bad; but let us hope it will not come to the worst. Good night."

"Good night," I said, as he walked away; "however can it be a good night for me again?"

Then, after a weary time, I rose, and began to walk up and down my quarters with the question always before me—

"Suppose that man dies, what will you do?"

Very little sleep came to me that night, and at dawn I sent a man for news, and my servant came back looking horrified.

"Oh, mastah!" he whispered, "dey say Private Smith going to die."



CHAPTER NINE.

Private Smith did not die, but he had a month in hospital for his punishment, while mine was confined to a severe reprimand.

I was not happy at Rambagh, for though the other officers were pleasant enough with me, Barton always seemed to be sneering at my efforts, and was ready to utter some disparaging remark. There was one consolation, however: the others did not seem to like him, so that it did not look as if it were all my fault. I noticed one thing, though, and it was this: Barton was always ready to say disparaging things about Brace; but the latter never retaliated, and always refrained from mentioning, save in the most general way, his brother-officer's name.

I was getting on fast, I suppose, for I felt less nervous and more at home with the troop. The various words of command had ceased to be a puzzle, and when I had orders to give, I was beginning to be able to use my voice in a penetrating, decisive way, and did not feel ashamed of it when I heard my words ring out clearly, and not as if they were jerked or bumped out by the motion of my horse.

Then, too, I had got on so far that I did not mind standing close to the brass field-pieces when they were fired, and the discharge had ceased to make my ears ring for hours after, and feel deaf. At the first shots I heard, I could not help wondering whether the piece I stood by would burst, and kill or wound us with a jagged fragment of brass. While now the dashing gallop, with the guns leaping and bounding over the plain, and the men on the limbers holding on with both hands to keep from being jerked off, had grown exhilarating and full of excitement. There was always the feeling that one must have a bad fall, and sometimes a horse would go down, and a man be hurt more or less seriously; but somehow I always escaped. And one morning I went back to breakfast after a heavy gallop, tired, but prouder than I had ever before felt in my life, for I had heard one of the men whisper to another as we drew up into line after a fierce gallop—

"How the young beggar can ride!"

And, to make matters better, Brace came alongside of me, and uttered the one word, "Capital," as he passed.

I felt the colour come into my cheeks, and a sense of delight such as I had not experienced for months; and then I gave my horse's sides a nip with my knees, which made it start, for I caught sight of Barton smiling superciliously, and supplying the drop of bitterness which kept me from growing conceited.

I must hurry through these early days, a full account of which would sound dull and uninteresting, but during which I had grown to be quite at home on the Sheik, and on another horse which Brace purchased for me, and which, from his speed, I called Hurricane. For though I found that I belonged to the fastest and best-trained troop of horse artillery in the service, from being so light a weight, I had to keep a pretty tight rein on my new horse, so as to hold him in his place.

Barton laughed at it, and called it a wretched screw; but I did not mind, for I found out before I had been attached to the corps long that everything in which Brace had a hand was wrong, and that he bore anything but a friendly feeling toward me, dubbing me Brace's Jackal, though all the time I felt that I was no nearer being friends than on the day I joined.

I had learned from Barton why Brace had been over to England. It was to take his young wife, to whom he had only been married a year, in the hope of saving her life; and if I had felt any repugnance to the lieutenant before, it was redoubled now by the cynically brutal way in which he spoke.

"She died, of course," he said. "We all knew she would—a poor, feeble kind of creature—and a good job for him. A soldier don't want an invalid wife."

These words explained a good deal about Brace that I had not grasped before, and as I thought of his quiet, subdued ways, and the serious aspect of his face, I could not help feeling how fond he must have been of the companion he had lost, and how it had influenced his life.

At the end of a year, we received the route, and were off, to march by easy stages, to Rajgunge, where we were to be stationed, and a glorious change it seemed to me, for I was as weary of the ugly town, with its dirty river and crowded bazaars, as I was of our hot, low barracks and the dusty plain which formed our training-ground. Rajgunge, Brace told me, was quite a small place, in a beautifully wooded, mountainous country, where there was jungle and cane-brake, with plenty of sport for those who cared for it, the rajah being ready enough to get up shooting-parties and find elephants and beaters for a grand tiger battue from time to time.

It was quite a new experience to me, all the preparations for the evacuation of the barracks, and I stared with astonishment at the size of the baggage-train, with the following of servants, grooms, tentmen, elephants, and camels, deemed necessary to accompany our marches. It was like the exodus of some warlike tribe; but, as Brace told me, it was quite the regular thing.

"You see, everything is done to spare our men labour. Their profession is to fight, and as long as they do that well, John Company is willing that they should have plenty of assistance to clean their horses, guns, and accoutrements."

Our marches were always made in the very early morning, many of our starts being soon after midnight, and a curious scene it was in the moonlight, as the long train, with its elephants laden with tents, and camels moaning and grumbling at the weight of the necessaries they were doomed to carry, the light flashing from the guns or the accoutrements of the mounted men, and all on and on, over the sandy dust, till I grew drowsy, and nodded over my horse's neck, rousing myself from time to time with a start to ask whether it was not all some dream.

Just as the sun was getting unpleasantly hot, and the horses caked with sweat and dust, a halt would be called in some shady tope, where the tents rose as if by magic, fires were rapidly lighted by the attendants, and, amidst quite a babel of tongues, breakfast was prepared, while parroquets of a vivid green shrieked at us from the trees, squirrels leaped and ran, and twice over we arrived at a grove to find it tenanted by a troop of chattering monkeys, which mouthed and scolded at us till our men drove them far into the depths of the jungle with stones.

Here, with our tents set up in the shade of the trees, we passed the hot days, with the sun pouring down with such violence that I have often thought it might be possible for a loaded gun to get heated enough to ignite the powder. There would be plenty of sleeping, of course, with the sentries looking longingly on, and wishing it was their turn; and then, soon after midnight, the column would be en route again, to continue its march till seven, eight, or nine o'clock, according to the distance of the camping-place, the same spots being used by the different regiments year after year.

There was very little variety, save that we had more or less dust, according to the character of the road material over which we travelled; and I heard the news, after many days, that the next would be the last, as eagerly as I had of the one which had been nominated for our start.

It was a brilliant morning when we came in sight of a sparkling river, beyond which were the white walls and gilded minarets of Rajgunge, with squat temples and ghauts down at the riverside, and everywhere dotted about tall waving palms, groves of trees, and again, beyond these, the rich green of cultivated lands, rising up to mountains blue in the distance, where the wild jungle filled up the valleys and gorges which seamed their sides.

"Lovely!" I ejaculated, as I feasted my eyes on the glorious scene.

"Eh? What?" said Barton, who heard me. "Bah! what a gushing girl you are, Gil Vincent! Does look, though, as if we might get a bit of shooting."

He rode on, and I hung back till Brace came abreast of me, and looked at me inquiringly.

"Well, Vincent," he said, "you wanted some beautiful country to look at. I have not exaggerated, have I?"

"No; it is glorious!" I cried.

"Yes; beautiful indeed, and the more lovely to us who have been so long in the plains."

We rode on in silence for a time till we neared the head of the bridge of boats we had to cross—a structure which looked too frail to bear our guns and the ponderous elephants in our baggage-train; but the leading men advanced; the first gun was drawn over by its six horses, and the rest followed, while, as I passed over with the Sheik snorting and looking rather wild-eyed at the rushing water, I was only conscious of an elastic motion of the plank roadway, as a hollow sound came up at the trampling of the horses' feet, and before long we were winding through that densely-populated city, and then right through to our quarters, high up on a slope, where the wind came down fresh and sweet from the hills.

"How long shall we stay here?" I asked Brace, that evening, after mess, as we stood at the edge of our parade-ground, looking down at the city with the level rays of the setting sun lighting up the gilded minarets, and glorifying the palm-trees that spread their great feathery leaves against the amber sky.

"How long shall we stay here?" said Brace, sadly, as he repeated my question. "Who can tell? Perhaps for a year—perhaps for a month. Till we are wanted to crush out some mad attempt on the part of a chief to assert his independence, or to put down a quarrel between a couple of rajahs hungry for each other's lands."



CHAPTER TEN.

It was a delightful change, for the country was grand, the English society pleasant and hospitable, and the chief of the district most eager to be on friendly terms with the officers of our troop, and of the foot regiment stationed in the lower part of the town, so that the months soon glided by, and whenever any of us could be spared from duty, we were off on some expedition.

Brace cared little for sport, but he used to join the shooting-parties got up by the nawab; and gloriously exciting beats we had through the jungle; those when Brace was my companion being far more enjoyable than when Barton had leave. For the latter's sole idea was to slay everything; while Brace, who was a dead shot, and who laid low several tigers during our stay, always seemed to be fonder of studying the habits of the birds and smaller animals that we came across. As for myself, I believe I shared to some extent the tastes of both; but to me the whole expedition, with its elephant-ride and train of picturesque servants, and the tiffin in the tent set up by the nawab's people, was the great attraction.

It was a merry life we all led, with some festivity always on the way, from hunting-parties down to lunches at the different civilians', and then up again to dinner-parties and balls, given by the mess of the artillery, or the sepoy regiment, which had an excellent band.

The officers of this black regiment were as pleasant and sociable a's could be, and the colonel as fine a specimen of an English country gentleman as could be found. There was quite an emulation as to which corps should be the most soldierly and perfect in their evolutions.

The colonel took to me, and we were the best of friends. He told me why.

"Because of your seat in the saddle, boy. I used to be passionately fond of hunting at home, and my heart warmed to you the first day I watched you in a gallop. However did you learn to ride like that?"

"I suppose it came almost naturally to me," I said, laughing. "My father always insisted upon my having a pony, and spending several hours a day in the saddle."

"Your father was a wise man, sir; and you ride capitally."

"Our riding-master said my seat was everything that was bad."

"Bah! He is a mechanic, and wants every man to ride like a pair of compasses slung across a rail. Don't you spoil your seat to please any of them. I like to see a man sit a horse as if he belonged to it. Then he can use his sword."

How proud he was of his regiment. "Look at them," he would say; "only that they are a little curved in the upper leg, they are as fine a set of men as you will find in any English regiment; and if it was not for their black faces, they would pass for Guards."

He was very kind to them, and set a splendid example to his officers, but, unfortunately, they did not follow his example. In fact, the whole of the English people at the station treated the black race as if they were inferior beings; and though every one in Rajgunge was humble and servile to the whites, it always seemed to me as if they were civil only because they were obliged.

I used to talk to Brace about it sometimes, and he would agree.

"But what can you expect?" he said. "They are a conquered race, and of a different religion. I question whether, with the kindest treatment, we should ever make them like us; but we never try."

I did not say anything, but thought that the black servants were always ready and eager to attend to him, and I never had any difficulty in getting things done; and often after that I used to wonder that a man like Ny Deen should patiently put up with the brutal insult and ill-usage he met with from Barton, who treated him like a dog, while like a dog the Indian used to patiently bear all his abuse and blows.

"Does him good," Barton said to me one day, with an ugly grin, because it annoyed me. "See what a good servant it makes him. You're jealous, Vincent. You want him yourself."

"Yes," I said, "I should like to have him, and show him that all English officers are not alike."

"Do you mean that as an insult, sir?" he cried.

"I meant it more as a reproach," I replied coolly.

"Look here, Vincent," he said hotly, "I have put up with a good deal from you since you have been in the troop, and I don't mean to stand much more from such a boy."

"Really, Barton—" I began.

"Stop, sir, please, and hear me out. Ever since I joined, and as far back as I can hear of, it has been considered a feather in a man's cap to belong to the horse artillery. Many a fine fellow has put down his name and wanted to be transferred from the foot, and want has been his master. But nowadays the service is going to the dogs."

"I don't want to—"

"Stop! you are going to hear me out," he cried, interposing between me and the door. "I've long wanted to come to an understanding with you, but you have always sneaked behind your nurse."

"I don't understand you," I said angrily; but it was not true.

"Then I'll tell you what I mean. You have always hung on the apron-string of Mr Brace, and a nice pair there are of you. The troop's going to ruin, and I shall tell Lacey so. I'm not going to stand it. Here, you came out, a mere schoolboy, and before you've been two years in the foot, you are selected to come into what used to be the smartest troop in the Company's service. I'm not blind. It's all grossly unfair. You've got relatives on the board, and it's all money and interest. It's a disgrace to the service."

"Do you mean I am a disgrace to the troop?" I said hotly.

"Yes, I do," he cried savagely; "and I know well enough one of these days how it will be. There will be some excuse made, and you will be promoted over me; and if you are, I warn you I won't rest until the whole miserable bit of trickery has been exposed."

"You would be clever if you did expose anything, for there is nothing for you to expose. My uncle did write to head-quarters, I know, but I read his letter first."

"What did it say?"

"And he only asked for my wishes to be acceded to, if I was found worthy."

"Found worthy!" he cried, with a mocking laugh, which made my cheeks burn. "Found worthy! It's a disgrace to the service!"

"Oh, there, I'm not going to quarrel with you," I said, fighting down my annoyance.

"No, and I am not going to quarrel with you, but for a couple of annas I'd give you a downright horsewhipping."

I started up from my seat, but a hand was laid upon my arm, and I was pressed down as I swung my head round and gazed up in Brace's stern face.

"Be quiet," he said, grimly; and then—"May I ask, Mr Barton, what this means?"

"No, you may not," cried Barton, offensively.

"But I do ask, sir. I heard you threaten to horse-whip your junior officer as I entered the room."

"And most creditable for an officer and a gentleman to stand at the door listening," cried Barton, in a mocking tone. "Eavesdropping."

Brace's pale sallow face changed colour, but he spoke very calmly, for he realised that Barton had made up his mind to quarrel with him.

"What has been the matter, Vincent?"

"Mr Barton has thought proper to accuse my friends of gross favouritism, and he tells me that I have no business in the horse brigade."

"Lieutenant Barton is not the judge of what officers are suitable for our troop; and you may take it for granted that if you had not proved yourself worthy of the selection made, you would very soon have been transferred back."

"Don't you believe it, Vincent," cried Barton, whose face was flushed, and whose manner indicated that he had been drinking overnight, with the consequence that he was irritable and bitter with every one about him. "The whole service is being neglected, or else there would very soon be a weeding out in this troop."

Brace had been very grave and calm so far. Again and again he had turned aside the sneers and innuendoes of Barton, who for months had grown more and more offensive as he found that he could insult Brace with impunity; but now he was startled by the change which came over his brother-officer, for Brace flushed up, his eyes glittered, and in a voice that I did not recognise as his own, he said—

"Yes, sir, and Lieutenant Barton would be removed, perhaps disgraced, for insolence to his brother-officers, brutality to the people under him, and conduct generally unworthy of an officer and a gentleman."

"What?" cried Barton.

"You understand my words, sir," said Brace. "You have forced me by your treatment to turn at last, and tell you that I will submit to your insults no longer, neither will I allow you to annoy Vincent."

"You will not allow me!"

"I will not. Do you think I am a child because I have been forbearing? Your insolence has been beyond bounds."

"Then why did you bear it?" cried Barton.

"For the honour of the service, sir. Because I would not degrade myself and you in the eyes of our men by descending to a quarrel."

"How brave!" cried Barton, mockingly; but Brace paid no heed, and went on.

"Because, sir, I would not be your boon companion, and drink and generally conduct myself in a way unworthy of an English officer in the high position I hold in this country, I have been constantly marked out as the butt for your offensive sarcasm, even as far back as the time when, if you had possessed a spark of manliness or feeling, you would have respected me and shown consideration for one who was passing through such an ordeal as I pray Heaven you may be spared."

"Bah! A parade of your sufferings," said Barton, mockingly.

Brace winced, but he went on calmly.

"I have seen all and borne all, and even now I should not have spoken but for your insult to Vincent, whom I heard you threaten to horse-whip."

"Which he daren't do," I cried angrily.

"Silence!" cried Brace sternly. "You are no longer a boy, and this is not a school."

"Indeed!" said Barton, looking me up and down with an offensive laugh. "I thought it was."

I winced now in my turn, and then looked wonderingly at Brace, who uttered the word—

"Contemptible!"

Barton took a step forward angrily.

"Keep your bullying looks and words, sir, for the poor Hindoos, whom you have so disgracefully trampled down. They are wasted upon me, for I know your nature now only too well. I am not going to quarrel, though I have easy excuse."

"Then what will you do?" said Barton. "Fight?"

"Yes, when my duty renders it necessary, sir. As matters stand, I feel bound to report what has taken place to Major Lacey, and to leave it in his hands to reprimand you, and call upon you to apologise."

Barton sank back into a chair, uttering a forced laugh that made Brace turn pale.

"'And out crept a mouse!'" cried the lieutenant. "Is that all, my brave, fire-eating captain? Report all to Major Lacey! By Jingo, sir, I'll spare you the trouble. I'll go and tell him what a miserable, contemptible, beggarly coward he has in his troop, and that he is allowing you to drag down your wretched pupil to your own level. There, stand out of my way."

He thrust Captain Brace aside, as he strode toward the door—a thrust that was almost a blow, and then aloud, "Here you: open that door— quickly. Do you hear?"

I looked across sharply, and saw that a couple of the native servants had entered the room, and felt that they must have heard every word.

They opened the door, Barton passed out, and the two white-robed men turned to look at us wonderingly before hurrying out, and the door fell to.

"They must have heard," I said to myself; "and they'll go and tell the others. It will be all round the station directly that Captain Brace is a coward." For a few moments I felt as if I dared not raise my eyes, but it was as if something was dragging me to look up, and as I did, I saw that Brace was looking at me fixedly, and there was something very singular in his gaze; but for some time he did not speak, and there was so strange a tumult in my breast that no words would come.

"Well," he said at last. "What are you thinking?"

"Of all this," I said huskily.

"And that as an officer and a gentleman I ought to have knocked Barton down?"

"Something of the kind," I replied.

"Of course; and then, according to the code of honour among gentlemen, I ought to fight him at daybreak to-morrow morning."

I was silent.

"Yes," he said passionately; "that is what you are thinking."

"I can't help it," I cried angrily. "He almost struck you, and the khansamah saw it, and that other man too. It will be all over the place. You must fight him now."

He looked at me very strangely, and I saw his brows contract as he said gravely—

"Duelling is a thing of the past, Vincent; a cowardly, savage practice in which the life of a man is at the mercy of his skilful adversary. Life is too valuable to throw away in a quarrel. I do not feel as if I had done all my work yet."

"But what can you do?" I said excitedly, for my brain was in a turmoil. I loved him, but his conduct frightened me; it was so unlike anything I could have expected from a gallant soldier; and there was a singularly cold sensation of dread creeping over me. I felt afraid that I was going to dislike him as one unworthy to be known, as I cried angrily, "But what can you do?"

He looked at me as if he could read me through and through, and his face grew very sad as he replied—

"There is the proper course open to me, Vincent, and that I am about to do."

"Fight him?" I cried eagerly, and the miserable sensation of dread began to pass off.

"No, boy; I am going to explain everything to Major Lacey, who will report to head-quarters if he considers it right."

He passed slowly out of the room, and I heard his step echoing beneath the broad verandah, as he went in the direction of Major Lacey's, while, unable to restrain myself in my bitterness and contempt, I too got up and hurried out.

"He is a coward!" I muttered; "a coward!"—for I could not see the bravery of the man's self-control; "and I have been gradually growing to like him, and think of him always as being patient and manly and noble. Why, I would have tried to knock Barton down, if he had killed me for it."

"Gone to report," I thought again, after a pause; "gone to tell, like a little schoolboy who has been pushed down. Him a soldier; and a coward like that!"



CHAPTER ELEVEN.

Joined to the love of a military life, I had all a boy's ideal notions of bravery and chivalry. By which I mean the frank, natural, outside ideas, full of the show and glitter, and I could not see beneath the surface. I did not know then that it might take more courage to refuse to fight and face the looks and scorn of some people than to go and meet an adversary in the field, after the braggart fashion of some of our French neighbours, whose grand idea of honour is to go out early some morning to meet an enemy about some petty, contemptible quarrel, fence for a few moments till one or the other is pricked or scratched, and then cry, "Ah, mon ami! mon ami!" embrace, and go home to breakfast together.

Very beautiful, no doubt, to a certain class of Frenchman, but to a nineteenth-century Englishman—fluff.

I'm afraid that I was very Gallic in my ideas in more ways, so that when next morning I knew that both Brace and Barton had had long interviews separately with Major Lacey, and then met him together in the presence of the doctor, and found that a peace had been patched up, my feelings toward Brace were very much cooled, and I was ready to become fast friends with Barton—at least, I could have been if he had been a different kind of man. As it was, I was thrown a great deal on the society of the doctor and the other officers, while Brace, who rightly interpreted my coolness, held himself aloof at mess.

I found myself near the major that evening, and after a time he began chatting to me in a low tone.

"Let's see; you were in the squabble yesterday," he said. "Great pity. We don't want any references to head-quarters, Vincent, nor court-martial; and as for their fighting, that sort of thing's as dead as Queen Anne. We've got to keep our fighting for the Queen's enemies, eh?"

"I suppose so, sir."

"Of course you suppose so," he said sharply. "Why, you did not want them to fight, did you?"

"That, it seems to me, would have been the most honourable course, sir," I said stiffly.

He turned his head and stared in my face.

"You're a young goose—gander, I mean. No: gosling," he said. "There, I've made them shake hands, after Barton had apologised. I'm not going to have any of that nonsense. And look here, you've got to be friends with Barton too. Why, hang it, boy, a handful of Englishmen here, as we are, in the midst of enemies, can't afford to quarrel among ourselves; we must hold together like—like—well, like Britons. Here, I've something else for you to think about. I've had a messenger over from the nawab. A couple of man-eaters have been doing a lot of mischief a few miles from his place, and he wants some of us to go over very early to-morrow to rid the country of the brutes. Perhaps I shall go too."

The thoughts of such an exciting expedition soon drove away those of the trouble, and upon the major making the announcement, it was at once discussed, while in imagination I pictured the whole scene, ending with the slaughter of the monsters, and their being brought home in triumph upon a pad elephant.

"I thought so," the major whispered to me with a chuckle; "that has put them both in a good temper. I did think of going, but I shall send them."

I went across the square to my bed that night, full of thoughts of the expedition, and not far from my quarters came upon three figures in white, talking eagerly together, but ready to start apart when they caught sight of me, and salaam profoundly. "Ah, Ny Deen," I said. "Fine night."

"Yes, sahib," he said in his soft low voice. "Does the sahib go to the hunt to-morrow?"

"How did you know there was to be a hunt to-morrow?" I said sharply.

"There are orders to have the buggies ready, sahib, before day."

"Oh," I said. "Then your master is going?"

"No, sahib; he stays with the men."

"I don't think he does," I said to myself, as I went into my quarters, where I gave orders for all my shooting things to be put out; and then, after making sure that I should be called in time, I dived in behind the mosquito curtains, so as to get all the rest I could, and in half a minute was sleeping heavily, but not until I had repented leaving the mess-room without saying "good night" to Brace, Barton having gone some time before, as he was on duty that evening.

I scarcely seemed to have fallen asleep before a hand was laid upon my shoulder.

"Master's bath and coffee ready," said a voice; and I looked up to see by the light of a lamp that my man Dost was gazing down at me, with the curtains held aside, and a curiously troubled fixed look in his face.

"Time to get up already?" I said.

"Yes, sahib," he said hurriedly. "All the other gentlemen call and get up."

"All right," I said; and springing out, I stepped into my tiled bath-room, and had myself refreshed with some chatties of cold water poured over my head, after which, feeling elastic as steel, I towelled, and began to dress.

"Why, hallo, Dost," I said, as I saw that the man was trembling, "what's the matter? Not ill?"

"No, no, sahib; quite well, quite well!" he cried hastily.

"But you are not," I cried. "You are all of a shiver. Let me give you something."

He shook his head violently, and kept on reiterating that he was quite well.

"Come, out with it, Dost," I said. "You are not deceiving me. What is the matter?"

He looked round quickly, and I could see that the poor fellow evidently was in great alarm about something.

"Master always good to Dost," he said.

"Of course I am, when you are good and attentive to me. Is my rifle ready?"

"Yes, sahib. Dost afraid for his lord."

I laughed at him, though I felt touched, as I grasped what he seemed to mean.

"You coward!" I said. "Do you think the first tiger I see will get into my howdah and maul me?"

He nodded his head, and looked more nervous than before.

"And that I shall be a job for Dr Danby, and you will have to nurse me?"

He bowed his head again.

"Then you would like me to stop, and not go to the tiger-hunt?"

"No, no, sahib," he cried excitedly, and I smiled again at him, as I thought that it was very doubtful whether Ny Deen and his other men were in such anxiety about Barton.

Dost hung about me with the greatest of solicitude as, fully equipped at last, I made my way to where the buggies and their attendants were in waiting. It was very dark, and it was only by the light of the lanterns that I made out who was there, and saw Brace, the doctor, and a quiet gentlemanly lieutenant of ours named Haynes.

Just then the major came bustling up, his genial nature having urged him to leave his comfortable bed, and come to see us off.

"All here?" he cried. "You'll have a glorious day. Needn't have taken rifles; the rajah would have everything for you, and better pieces than your own, I dare say. Wish I was going with you."

"Why not come?" said Brace.

"No, no! Don't tempt me; I've quite work enough. Some one ought to stay."

"I will stop with pleasure," cried Brace.

"No, no, my dear boy; we settled that you should go. I'll have my turn another time."

"But really—" began Brace.

"Be quiet, man!" cried the major. "You are going. Keep an eye on Vincent here, and don't let a tiger get him. He can't be spared."

"I dare say we shall be in the same howdah," replied Brace; and somehow I did not feel pleased any more than I did at the major taking such pains to have me looked after like a little boy.

"These young chaps are so thoughtless," continued the major. "They run into danger before they know where they are, and then, when they are in the midst of it, they forget to be cool."

"Oh, I shall be careful, sir," I said pettishly.

"You think so, of course," said the major. "I suppose you will not be back till quite late. Like an escort to meet you?"

"Oh no, it is not necessary," said Brace.

"Hullo! Where's Barton?" cried the doctor. "Any one seen him?"

"Not coming," said the major quietly.

"Not coming?"

"No; he sent me a line last thing to say he preferred not to go."

I heard Brace draw his breath in a hissing way, and then he hesitated and descended from the buggy to speak to the major, who said aloud—

"No, no! If he likes to turn disagreeable, let him. There, be off, and a good day's sport to you. Here, Vincent, try if you can't manage a skin rug for yourself this time, and don't any of you waste your charges on small game. You are sure to scare the big away."

We promised, and five minutes after were going at a pretty good pace along the main road, each vehicle with a native driver, and a man running at the horses' heads as well.

We had about fifteen miles to go along the road to a point where elephants or horses would be in waiting for us, sent by the rajah from his jungle palace. Then we should leave the buggies and the main road, to follow a track leading up to the rajah's place, where he often went, to be out of the heat and dust of the city, in which every pair of feet was kicking up the dust all day long, till it was as if the lower part of the town was shrouded in a dense stratum of fog twelve or fourteen feet thick.

We had been riding for some time at a rapid rate before we began to note a change in the surroundings. First a tree would stand out in a pale grey ghostly way; then a clump of high cane-like grass would loom out like something solid, and then, on turning round, I could see a pale grey light in the sky, which rapidly turned to pale crimson, and then to deep ruddy gold, as up came the sun almost at once, the change from night to day being rapid there.

For some little time now we had been ascending; and getting into a part clear of trees, we were suddenly aware of a tent pitched in the shade of a mango tope, and close by, quietly picking up freshly cut green food, and tucking it into their mouths with their trunks, were half a dozen elephants, three of which bore handsome trappings and howdahs, while the others had only the ordinary pads.

A couple of handsomely dressed servants came forward to meet us as we dismounted, and we were ushered into the open-sided tent, where breakfast was waiting, spread on a soft Indian carpet, while the rajah's men waited upon us with the greatest of attention.

But, as the doctor said, we had not come to eat, and very soon expressed our readiness to start, when the elephants were guided to the front of the tent, and we mounted, after giving orders to the drivers of the vehicles in which we had come, to be in waiting for us just at dusk. Then the huge animal on which I was mounted with the doctor moved slowly on apparently, but covering a good deal of ground in his shuffling stride.

A shout from Brace on the next elephant arrested us, though, and, on turning, we found that he was pointing back.

The scene was worth stopping to contemplate, for there, miles away behind us, lay Rajgunge, with its mosques and temples glittering in the morning sun, and the dust which often shrouded the place now visible only as a faint haze, while the sparkling river looked a very band of silver curving round it like the fold of some wondrous serpent undulating over the plain. The city lay in a hollow, from which the land sloped away on one side, while, on the other, hill and valley alternated, with the country rising higher and higher to where we stood, and then rose more and more into a wild of jungle and mountain, whose more distant eminences died into a soft blue mist.

"I never saw a more beautiful view," said the doctor to me. "Grand place to send patients to. Sight of the country would do them more good than my physic. Make much of it, Vincent," he said; "you may never see the city look so beautiful again."

I looked at him so wonderingly that he laughed.

"Well, next time it may be dark or cloudy, or raining, or at a different time of year."

The elephants were again in motion, and, leaving the well-beaten dak road behind us, we were now following an elephant's track, going at every step more and more into scenery such as I had pictured to myself when thinking about India as my future home.

"Look!" I cried excitedly, as, from the edge of a patch of jungle, a couple of peacocks ran along for a few yards, and then took flight, one blaze of bright colour for a few moments, as I caught flashes of vivid blue and green, and metallic gold.

My hand went mechanically to the rifle behind me in the howdah, and the doctor laughed.

"Well done, Englishman!" he cried. "Something beautiful, and wild. Let's kill it!"

"We've come out shooting," I said, half sulkily.

"Yes—tigers!" said the doctor. "What a curious fate mine is—to live always with you soldiers, who think of nothing but killing, while my trade is to save life! There goes another peacock," he cried, as one of the lovely birds, with an enormous train, ran out into the open, rose, and went skimming away before us.

"I wonder such beautiful birds don't attract the common people; they're grand eating. Why don't they get shot?"

"Sacred to everybody but to us Englishmen," he replied. "We are the only savages out here who kill peafowl."

"Then the Hindoos don't like it?"

"Of course not; but they have to put up with it, all the same. And we do rid them of the great cats which kill their cows—and themselves, sometimes. Why, they will not even kill their poisonous snakes, and thousands die of the bites every year."

"How lovely!" I said, as my eyes wandered round.

"What! To be killed by a snake?"

"No, no; this scenery."

"Oh yes; and Brace seems to be enjoying it too. I say, you don't seem so thick with him as you were, squire."

"Oh, I don't know," I said indifferently.

"Well, I do, and I think you are foolish. Brace is a thorough good fellow. Better stick to him, even if he does stir you up. He'll make a man of you, without winning your money at cards."

Snork!

The elephant we were on trumpeted, and those behind threw up their trunks, and seemed to echo the huge beast's cry.

"Look out!" said the doctor. "Rifles!"

For, about a hundred yards in front, there was something moving among the trees, and soon after a couple of the huge Indian buffaloes walked out into the open track in front, threw up their heads, one touching the other with his wide-spreading horns, and stood staring at us, as if puzzled at what he saw.

"Hold fast. Our elephant may spin round, and go off at a gallop," said the doctor.

But the huge beast stood firm, only lowering its head, and swinging it right and left, as it kept its little sagacious-looking eyes fixed upon the great bulls in front, while its great tusks were ready to meet the bulls' wide-spreading horns.

It was my first experience of being face to face with any of the large game of India; and, as I grasped the idea of what a formidable creature the buffalo was—certainly nearly double the size of one of our ordinary oxen, my heart began to beat rather heavily.

"Shall I fire?" I whispered to the doctor; for I had my rifle resting on the front of the howdah, ready to take aim.

"No," said a familiar voice on my right; and I found that Brace's elephant had been urged forward until it was now close abreast of ours. "If you fired at this distance, you would only be wasting a shot. You could not bring either of the brutes down, and it would be only wounding them for nothing."

"Going to charge, aren't they?" said the doctor.

"I hope not. They may think better of it, and go back into the jungle."

Brace was right, for, after standing staring stupidly at the elephants for some moments, the great slaty-black creatures slowly moved off into the dense growth on our left.

I suppose that I showed my disappointment, for Brace said quietly—

"It is not considered wise to spend time in firing at everything one meets, when bound to beat up tiger."

He addressed a word or two in Hindustanee to the mahouts, and the elephants, freed now from apprehension, shuffled onward till we came upon an open park-like space, at the end of which, on a slope, was the rajah's shooting-box. Here half a dozen more elephants were standing, with a number of well-mounted men armed with spears, shields, and tulwars, and quite a host of lightly clad Hindoos were lying about, waiting to commence their task—that of beating for game, and driving it toward where the sportsmen were stationed.

Upon our appearance, the rajah came out of the large verandah in front of the house, and saluted us cordially.

He was a young, active-looking man, dressed like an ordinary English sportsman bound for a day's shooting on the moors; and, after pressing us to enter the house and partake of refreshment, which we declined, he at once called up a couple of hard, muscular-looking men, gave them an order or two, and the result was that these two shouldered their long, clumsy-looking old matchlocks. They signed to the crowd of beaters, who had all sprung to their feet as the rajah came out, and marched them all off, so that they could make for the head of a valley where a tiger had had a kill, and up which valley we were to slowly progress, after taking a circuit, so as to reach its mouth about the same time as the beaters reached the head.

We had a much greater distance to go than the men on foot, and after a few preliminaries, the rajah mounted to the howdah of one of the waiting elephants, followed by his chief huntsman, well provided with quite a battery of English rifles. Two or three of his officers took their places on other elephants, and the mounted men and a party of foot marched at our side, as the imposing little procession started.

The rajah spoke very good English, and there were moments when I forgot his smooth oily manner and dark countenance, and could almost feel that he was some swarthy sportsman who had invited us to his place for a day's shooting.

He was as eager as any of us, and, as we marched off, he told us that his shikaree had marked down two tigers of exceptional size—beasts that had done a great deal of mischief in the district; and he was confident that we should have an excellent day's sport.

The sun was now tremendously powerful, but the motion of the huge beasts we rode produced a certain amount of air, and the excitement made us forget everything but the object of our visit.

Our course was toward a spur of a range of hills, and on rounding this, we found ourselves at the entrance of a narrow valley, across which we were formed up, the rajah's huntsman giving us a few words of instruction as to keeping as nearly as possible in a line, and warning us to have a watchful eye upon every patch of bushes and tall, sun-dried grass.

A move was made as soon as we were in line, and with the valley gradually contracting in width, and the hills over our side growing higher and more steep, our prospects of seeing game grew brighter each moment; in fact, it was almost a certainty, as the head of the valley was occupied by the beaters, who would soon begin to move down in our direction.

Certain enough, but very tantalising, for every now and then there was a sharp rustle or breaking of twigs and something bounded from its lair to dash up the valley without giving us a chance of seeing its flank.

"Never mind," said the doctor. "Not what we want; and we shall have a chance at them, perhaps, by-and-by, when they are turned back."

As we went on, from my elevated position I began to have better fortune, seeing now a deer dart up the valley, and directly after, from some yellow dried-up grass, there was a loud rush and a scramble.

"Pig," said the doctor unconcernedly; and as I watched the grass I could see it undulate and wave where the little herd of wild swine was making its way onward.

"No sign of a tiger," I said aloud; and, to my surprise, a reply came from Brace, whose elephant was shuffling along not many yards away, and I could, as he spoke, just see his face through the tops of the tall reedy grass.

"No," he said; "but very likely one of them is creeping and gliding along just ahead of us, so keep a sharp look-out."

Just then I began thinking of Brace instead of the tigers, for it seemed so painful to be at odds with him, and to go on in the distant way we had kept up lately, because I looked upon him as a coward. I cannot explain my feelings. All I know is that I felt that I did not like him a bit, and all the time I was drawn towards him and was hurt when I spoke coldly to him, and more hurt when he gave me one of his half-sad, penetrating looks, and then spoke distantly.

"I think I could like him," I said to myself, "if he had not proved such a coward." And then I thought that under the circumstances I should have had no hesitation in going out and fighting Barton. As I arrived at this pitch, I felt uncomfortable, for something within me seemed to ask the question—

"Wouldn't you?"

Just then an elephant again uttered his harsh grunting squeal known as "trumpeting," and an electric thrill ran through me, for I had learned enough of tiger-shooting to know that the great animal had scented his enemy, and the strange cry was taken up by another of the elephants.

Orders were passed along to right and left for us to keep in a steady line, and the men between the elephants grew every moment more excited. For the action of the animals proved that it was no false alarm, and in the momentary glances I had from right to left, I saw that the rajah and Brace were waiting, with finger on trigger, for a shot at the striped monster creeping on up the valley.

"Keep cool," said the doctor to me in a whisper; "and if you get a good chance at him, fire at the shoulder, but don't throw away a shot. A slight wound may do more harm than good—make the brute break back through the line, perhaps, and we should lose him."

"I'll be careful," I said huskily.

"That's right. I want for us to get one tiger, and not the rajah. He has plenty of chances."

"Keep a sharp look out, doctor," came from Brace, in a loud voice, which told that he was evidently excited.

In a few minutes we were through the dense thicket of grass, and in a rocky bottom, dotted sparely with tufts of bush and loose stones; and, as I ran my eye over this, I turned to the doctor despairingly.

"There is nothing to hide him here," I said. "We must have passed him in the thick grass."

"Nothing to hide him!" cried the doctor; "why, the gorge is full of hiding-places. I call this good cover."

"Is that something moving?" I said suddenly; and I pointed to some thin yellowish-brown grass, about fifty yards ahead.

"Eh, where? By George!"

His rifle was to his shoulder in a moment, there was a flash, a sharp echoing report, and the mahout shouted "Bagh! Bagh!" while, as the smoke rose, I had a faint glimpse of a great striped animal bounding out of sight, a hundred and fifty yards ahead.

"Clever miss," said the doctor, reloading, as inquiries came from right and left. "No doubt about the tigers now, Vincent," he added to me.

"I thought I saw something moving, but I could hardly tell it from the stems of the dry grass."

"I suppose not Nature has been pretty kind to tigers that way. It is almost impossible to see them amongst grass or reeds, so long as they keep still. Bah! that was a wretched shot. But it's easier to miss than hit, Vincent."

"I wish I had seen him," I said, in a disappointed tone.

"Why, you did see him, lad, and missed a good chance. Your rifle ought to have been up to your shoulder the moment he moved."

"But I thought it was grass," I said.

"Ah, you will not think it was grass again. Capital practice this in decision, my lad. You've had a splendid lesson."

We pressed on as fast as the roughness of the ground would allow, for it was so open now that, in all probability, the tiger would have gone on some distance, and with the elephants plainly in view and the mounted and dismounted men between them, we made quite a goodly show. But the heat was terrific. It seemed as if the rocks were glowing and reflecting the sun's rays, so that at any other time we should have declared it unbearable, but now excitement kept us going.

As we passed the spot where we had seen the tiger disappear, our ranks were closed up, and we went on watchfully. In my eagerness now, I was ready to turn tufts of grass and blocks of stone into tigers; and had taken aim at one with my ears singing with excitement, when the doctor laid his hand on mine.

"What are you doing?" he said.

I pointed, for I could not speak, and he laughed, and then raised his own piece to his shoulder, as a shot rang out from Brace's howdah, followed by one from the rajah's.

"A hit," cried the doctor. "Did you see him?"

I shook my head.

"I got one glimpse of him."

"That shot was home, doctor, I think," said Brace.

"Not a doubt about it. Steady; keep on."

The elephants advanced slowly, with their trunks thrown up in the air, and as, in the midst of intense excitement, we neared the spot where the tiger had been seen slinking from one stone to the other, one of the men uttered an exclamation and pointed down at a spot of blood upon the hot stone at our feet; and then at another and another at intervals, on dry grass and leaf.

"Take care," said the rajah; "he will be very savage now."

The warning was hardly needed, for every one was on the alert, expecting at any moment to find the tiger lying dead, or to see it bound out defiantly and ready to spring at the nearest elephant.

"Mind how you shoot, Vincent," said the doctor, meaningly. "I came out for a day's sport, and don't want it spoiled by professional pursuits."

"I don't understand you," I said.

"Well, if I must put it plainly, don't shoot a beater instead of a tiger."

"Bagh! bagh!" came from one of the men on foot; and this time the rajah led off with a shot, but it seemed that he had only obtained a glimpse of the great cat-like beast sneaking round a tuft of bushes, as it made its way onward.

The brute was evidently severely wounded, for blood-stains were found again and again, several together, showing where the tiger had halted to watch or listen for his enemies; but still we could not get close enough for a decisive shot, and over and over again the line of elephants was halted in the belief that we must have passed the beast crouching down among the grass.

At the last of these halts, when, in spite of careful search, no more traces of the fierce man-eater could be seen, a council of war was held, and the question was raised whether we should go back, when the distant sound of shouts and the beating of tom-toms came faintly toward us, and this decided the line of action, for the rajah at once proposed that we should go and meet the beaters, for there was another tiger in the valley, and then we could beat out the one wounded on our return.

This was decided on, and the word was given to advance again; but hardly had the elephants moved, when there was a terrific roar, and a monstrous tiger bounded out toward us, lashing his tail from side to side, baring his white teeth, and laying down his ears as his eyes literally blazed at us in the sun.

Brace's rifle rang out on the instant, and, with a snarling roar, the beautifully striped beast swung his head round, made a snap at his shoulder, then turned and charged straight at the rajah's elephant, which uttered a shriek of dread, spun round, and dashed back at a mad pace.

The tiger did not pursue, but, evidently untouched by a couple more shots fired at it, came bounding toward us.

The doctor fired, but it did not check the onslaught, and the brute bounded right on to the elephant's shoulder and tried to claw its way into our howdah, as the mahout yelled with horror.

But the savage brute did not get quite up to us, for the doctor snatched my rifle from my hand, held it with the barrel resting on the edge of the howdah just as one would a pistol, fired, and the tiger dropped quite dead upon the scorched earth.

An eager shout arose, and there was a round of congratulations as a pad elephant was brought up from the rear, and the monster hauled across the creature's back, and securely fastened with ropes.

But we did not stop to finish this, for the shouting and tomtoming was growing plainer, and already a deer had trotted out of the tender growth a hundred yards ahead, stood listening to the sounds behind, and then, catching sight of us, darted down the valley at a tremendous pace.

A minute or two later, as we advanced, another deer appeared, turned, and trotted back; while soon after, a huge boar dashed out, charged through us, and was followed by a mother pig and her progeny, all of which dashed downward for their liberty.

And as we pushed on, with the valley still narrowing, and the noise made by the beaters increasing, animal after animal dashed past us, or, seeing the line of elephants, crept back, but only to appear again, and find that it could escape unmolested.

"No sign of another tiger, rajah," I heard Brace say.

"Yes, yes. There is another," he cried. "My people have seen him twice."

"Perhaps so," said the doctor to me, in a low voice; "but he would have shown before now, with all that noise in front."

He was wrong, though; for five minutes later, and when the beaters could not have been above a couple of hundred yards away, another magnificent beast dashed out of the cover with a roar, and charged down upon us, putting the line of elephants into such confusion that the aims of those who had a chance were disarranged. Then there came a wild scream from somewhere to our right, and we knew directly after that the tiger had broken through the line, striking down one of the rajah's men as he passed, and the poor fellow had to be bandaged by the doctor before he was lifted on to one of the elephants, fainting from loss of blood.

"Will it kill him?" I said huskily, as we returned to our own howdah.

"Oh no," replied the doctor. "A nasty clawing; but these men get over far worse wounds than that. There, keep your eyes open; we must try and take revenge. I never feel any compunction in shooting a tiger. There isn't room for them in a civilised land."

We were returning over the same ground now, with the beaters far behind, and every bush, and tuft, and patch of dry grass was carefully searched as hour after hour went by, and there was talk about a halt for lunch; but with such a monster known to be somewhere in the gorge no one felt disposed for anything but a refreshing cup of water, and downward we went again.

The feeling was fast growing upon us that the tiger had gone right on and out of the valley into the open country, when once more an elephant trumpeted, and told of our being near the object of our search.

Heat and fatigue were forgotten directly, the elephants were urged on by the mahouts, and cane-brake and reed-flat were searched, long grass was ridden through, and for a couple of hours more we were on the tiptoe of expectation, but found no tiger, till just as we were growing thoroughly dispirited, and felt that we must be driving it lower and lower, and helping it to escape, the monster bounded out from a cluster of loose rocks, faced us, and rolled over at a shot from the doctor's rifle.

It sprang up again with a tremendous roar, and stood open-jawed, glaring at us as if considering which it should attack, when the rajah and Brace fired at the same time, and the monster rolled over again to struggle feebly, and then stretched itself out—dead.

"Never mind, Vincent," said the doctor, clapping me on the shoulder; and then addressing the others with us: "Your turn next; and you have been in at the death."

"Look! look!" I cried suddenly.

"What is it?"

"On that little elephant coming up the valley; isn't it one of our men?"

Brace heard me, and took out the little glass slung from his shoulder.

"Yes," he said. "It must be a message from the major. Good Heavens! I hope there is nothing wrong."

A word or two in Hindustani from the doctor to the mahout, and our elephant began to shuffle toward the one coming, for Brace had gone on at once.

Our elephant made a good circuit to avoid the dead tiger, holding his trunk high, and evidently in doubt as to whether the beast was feigning death; and directly after we were close up to the messenger, whom I saw to be Denny, the man who had come over in the Jumna, and whose sweetheart I had jumped overboard to save.

"What is it, Denny? Anything wrong?" cried Brace.

The man gave him a wild look, and nodded his head, as he held on by one hand to the rope which secured the elephant's pad.

"Well, well!" cried Brace, excitedly; "what is it? Speak."

The man's lips parted, and one hand went up towards his head, while the mahout who had brought him looked back with his face full of horror. Then, as our elephant was urged up on the other side, the doctor reached over from the howdah, and by a quick movement caught the poor fellow's arm just as his hold had given way, and he was about to pitch off the pad to the ground.

"I thought so," cried the doctor, helping to lower him down. "He was fainting. The poor fellow has been wounded—badly, too!"

"What is this? How did he get hurt?" cried Brace to the mahout in Hindustani.

"My lord, I don't know. He came on a poor horse, and ordered me to come to you. My lord, he is very bad."

Just then the rajah came up, and I fancied there was a peculiar look in his face. He had changed colour, and seemed wild and strange, and when Brace fixed his eyes upon him he averted his gaze.



CHAPTER TWELVE.

I noticed all this, but our attention was taken up by the wounded man, to whose side we had rapidly descended, all thought of tigers being now at an end.

"The poor fellow has been set upon by budmashes as he was on his way here with a despatch," said Brace. "Let me come a minute, doctor, and search his pockets."

"Hang the despatch, man!" said the doctor sternly. "I want to save the lad's life."

He was down on his knees by Denny's side, and had taken out his pocket-book and thrown it open, displaying surgical instruments, needles, silk, and bandages.

"Here, Vincent, come and help me," he said. "Some of you cut a branch or two and shade us from this awful sun. Now, Vincent, slit open that sleeve; never mind damages. Hah! I thought so. That's one exhauster."

As the man's arm was bared, the doctor caught my hand, and made me seize and press upon an artery high up in the limb; for from a terrible gash the blood was pumping out in regular pulsations, and as this act checked the bleeding a little, the doctor rapidly found and tied the divided artery, and then bandaged the wound.

"That was the most dangerous," he said. "Now, then, what next? Cut on shoulder, not serious—ugly gash on head, bad—stab in thigh—must have been mounted—bullet in muscles of shoulder, fired evidently as the man was escaping. Hah! enough for one poor fellow. Now, Vincent, we'll stop the bleeding, and then we must have him carried on a litter under shelter."

"Couldn't he bear the motion of the elephant?" said Brace.

"No! Yes," said the doctor; "perhaps it would be best. While we are waiting for a litter we could get him to the rajah's. There, I think he will not hurt. You may try for your despatch now."

Brace and I tried the man's pockets, and the doctor thrust his hand into the breast, but the result was nil.

"No despatch," said Brace, uneasily; and I saw his face wrinkle up, as if he were puzzled and anxious. "Let's get him on the little pad elephant; it will be easier."

"Now," said the doctor, who had been bathing the poor fellow's forehead and trickling water between his parched lips, "he's coming to. Don't question him; leave it to me."

For at that moment the man's face twitched a little, and he began to mutter excitedly; his words being plain enough to those near.

"Cowards!" he said. "Treachery—you dog—it's murder! Look out, boys! Ah—sentry—the gate!"

He uttered a low groan and was silent.

"Not attacked on the road," said Brace, excitedly.

"No," said the rajah, hastily; "my people would not attack him."

"There's something wrong at the barracks," cried Brace, excitedly. "He said treachery."

I felt the blood thrill through my veins at these words; and then I stepped closer to Gunner Denny, whose eyes had now opened widely, and he was staring wildly round, till his gaze rested on me, and he made a sign to me to bend down.

"Look out, sir," he said, in a faint voice. "Ah! Water!"

His eyes seemed to film over, but as water was trickled between his lips, he swallowed a little with difficulty, and revived, while we leant over him, listening intently for his next words.

"Mutiny," he panted; "don't go back."

"What!" cried Brace; and I saw a movement amongst the rajah's people, and they gathered round him.

"This morning," said Denny, faintly. "Quarters seized; Major and Mr Barton cut down."

"Great Heavens!" cried Brace.

"Masters of the barracks—Sepoy regiment—down town—murdered their officers—I—got away—came on, and—"

He uttered a low sigh and fainted.

"Dr Danby! You hear?"

"Yes," said the doctor, in a low voice. "What I always feared. They've risen against us at last."

"But both regiments? Absurd!"

"No; of course our men wouldn't. And they've seized the barracks, I gather. Brace, old fellow, we're in for it. The storm has broken."

"I don't understand you. There is trouble with the native infantry regiment, I suppose, and some of the men have gone up and seized our barracks. Oh, why was I not there?"

"Because you've other work to do, man," whispered the doctor. "Look at the rajah. Brace, old fellow, we shall have to fight for our lives. This is the first flash of the fire; the whole country is rising in revolt."

"No, no; impossible!" said Brace. Then, turning to the rajah, he saw that in his face which made him flash into a tempest of passion, and he seized the double rifle he had thrown on the ground, cocked both barrels, and advanced furiously toward the chief, while at his first menace the men advanced, drew their tulwars, slung their shields round from where they hung over their shoulders, or presented spears.

"You dog!" roared Brace, whose manner had completely changed. "You knew of all this!"

The rajah waved one hand to his men, who stopped short, scowling angrily, and with their dark eyes flashing, as, following my captain's example, I cocked my own piece.

"Captain Brace will not fire on his host," he said, in very good English, and I saw his nostrils quivering as he spoke and stepped forward. "We have eaten salt and are brothers."

Brace lowered his piece and I did the same.

"Yes, I knew of it," said the rajah, quietly.

"That the men of the native regiment meant to mutiny," cried Brace, "and did not warn us?"

"I knew and did not warn you," said the rajah, quietly.

"What treachery!"

"No," said the rajah, "not treachery. I have held my hand. I would not join, but I could not go against the people."

"But why—why have the men mutinied?" cried Brace, as the doctor and my companions listened excitedly.

"Because they were told," replied the rajah. "Can you not see? The storm has been gathering for years, and now it is spreading fast. The great Koompanni is no more, and their people are being scattered like the dust."

"What I have always feared," muttered the doctor.

"And you call yourself my friend—the friend of the officers who have welcomed you at our mess, whose hands you have pressed a hundred times."

"Yes," said the rajah, with a grave, sad smile, "and I have proved that I am your friend."

"But you owned that you knew of the mutiny."

"Yes, and asked you and the other English officers here to-day."

"To enable the men to seize the barracks."

"No; to save your lives," said the rajah. "Those who came lived; those who stayed away are dead."

Brace looked at him coldly, and then turned to us.

"Quick!" he said, "let's mount and get back. Help the wounded man. Doctor, you will ride with him?"

"Of course."

"What are you going to do?" said the rajah, quickly.

"Go back to Rajgunge," said Brace, sternly.

"To certain death?"

"To bring these madmen to their senses. Rajah, you will let the hathees bear us back?"

"To my place? Yes. No further."

"What?"

"I have saved your lives, and must try and keep you from harm. I cannot let you have the hathees. I will not fight against the Koompanni. It has always been just to me, but I cannot, I dare not, fight against the people of my country."

"Then we shall take them," said Brace, sternly. "Quick, make ready. Doctor, mount that small beast with the wounded man, and go first. We will cover your retreat, if any one dares to stop us."

The doctor prepared to mount without a word, and we pressed up to the huge elephant that the doctor and I had ridden; but the rajah passed his rifle to one of his men and came to us.

"Don't be so mad, Captain Brace," he said quietly, "I tell you I am your friend."

"No. You are with the enemy, sir. Stand back."

"No. I will not see you go straight to your death like that; neither will I give my life by supplying you with my hathees. It would be death to me and mine."

"Stand back, sir."

"Speak to him, Vincent," said the rajah. "Tell him I must order my people to stop you. It is madness—death; you against all my people."

Brace stopped short.

"You will order your men to fight," he said; "in other words, you join in the revolt against your Queen."

The rajah smiled, and, with true Eastern cunning, paid—

"I shall order my men to protect their chiefs property. Those are my hathees. They shall not go and show the men who have risen that I have helped you. Come, be wise. Stop here, and I will give you refuge. Where can you flee better?"

"To where men are faithful to their Queen."

"It is of no use, Brace," said the doctor. "Make a virtue of necessity, man." Then, turning to the rajah, "You will give us safe conduct down to your place?"

"Yes," said the rajah, quickly; "and if there is danger, my people shall hide my old friends. It is war now, not against men we know, but against the Koompanni."

"Let's ride back to the rajah's place," said the doctor, in a whisper; "we may make some terms with him on the way."

"Can we trust him?" replied Brace. "There is a look about him I hardly like."

"Help the sahibs," said the rajah; and then he made a sign, with the result that the mahouts made their elephants kneel down again, and, after a little hesitation, Brace mounted, and I followed him, while, after orders had been given for the second tiger to be placed on the pad elephant, we set off down the valley, the rajah riding abreast, while his armed men came behind, leading the pad elephant with the shikaree and the beaters.

The sun shone brightly as ever; the jungle growth away to right and left was glorious to behold, and the sky was of as vivid a blue as the edge of the forest was green; but it was as if a terrible black cloud had come down over us, and all were changed. We had ridden up that gorge full of excitement, and in the eager anticipation of a day's sport; now we knew that we were on our way to face death and terrors that I shrank from contemplating.

From time to time Brace gave an order to our mahout, and he went on abreast of the little elephant which bore the doctor and the wounded man, when a short eager conversation took place; Brace being of opinion that the outbreak was only local, and that our course would be to send messengers at once east and west to the nearest stations for help; but the doctor took a more serious view of the case.

"Perhaps I'm wrong," he said, "but I fear we have been growing this trouble for years past."

"What do you mean?" cried Brace, impatiently.

"You ask me that?" said the doctor. "Well, I mean that your Bartons, of whom there are thousands through the country—as officers, magistrates, collectors, and the like—have been trampling down and insulting these people, till they have been crushed in the dust, till they could bear no more, and they have risen. Now do you ask me what I mean?"

Brace glanced at me as I was thinking of the handsome, patient syce at the barracks, and the treatment I had often seen him meet with; and then, as if reading my thoughts, he turned away with a look of despair.

"There is no hiding the fact, Brace," continued the doctor. "I only hope I am exaggerating the troubles. But if I am right, I say, God help the wives and daughters of those who have them here, and may He spread his hands over the unfortunate children!"

His words seemed to cut through me with an agonising pain, as I mentally repeated his words—wives and daughters; and then I felt giddy, and as if I should fall from the howdah. "Wives and daughters!" I said aloud, and then, with a horrible feeling of despair, I pictured trouble at Nussoor, where my father's regiment was stationed, and thought of my mother and sister face to face with the horrors of a revolt.

"Hold up, Vincent," said Brace, in a sharp whisper. "What's the matter? Feel the sun too much? Take some water, lad. I want your help. You must not break down."

"No, no," I said quickly; "I'm better now."

"That's right! We must get back and learn the full extent of the mischief. Yon poor fellow was excited, and he may have exaggerated the affair. He is as bad as can be, and perhaps he imagines that the rest were the same. Cheer up, lad! Lacey is too clever and experienced an officer to have been cut up like that. I dare say we shall find him looking out for us anxiously. Perhaps we shall meet an escort sent to meet us."

Just then the rajah's elephant came abreast, and its master reached out his hand with refreshments, which Brace declined, but the next moment took eagerly.

"Thank you," he said quickly. "Eat, drink, Vincent," he half whispered; "we shall want all our strength."

"And you?" I said.

"Oh, I shall do the same," he said bitterly; and then he held out his hand, and whispered softly, "We have been very poor friends lately, my lad, but shake hands now, for perhaps we are very near the end of life's journey."

"Brace," I gasped as I snatched at his hand and gripped it hard.

"I hope not, for your sake, boy," he said in a low voice; "for you have your young life before you. I hope not for my own. I may be very useful now. There may be a great deal to do, and if there is, my lad," he said, smiling, "I am going to try not to be such a coward as to shrink from that duty; though you thought me one, because I would not fight the man who, perhaps, has had much to do with the rising."

"Oh, Brace," I faltered, "I don't think I ever thought you a coward."

"You did," he said quietly. "Most people in your place, and educated as you have been, would have judged me in the same hard way. Perhaps I am one, Gil; but I shall not show it, and I shall not shrink from anything I have to do."

"You think, then, that there is a wider trouble than that at the station?"

"I am obliged to think so. The doctor is right. I fought against it, telling myself I was panic-stricken, but I felt the same. You see the rajah knew of it, and—I am speaking plainly now—if matters turn out very bad, and I am not near you, try to get a horse and make for Nussoor. It is a very long journey, but the way may be open, and the trouble not spreading in that direction. At present your white face may command help and shelter, but don't tarry on the way—the great north-west road, mind, and—"

"I shall keep with you," I said quietly. "Let's wait and know the worst."

In another couple of hours we were at the rajah's, and as the elephants halted and knelt down, Brace turned to their owner, who was conversing with a couple of horsemen.

"Now, sir," he said, "I am not addressing the enemy, but the old friend and companion. You will let us have these two elephants as far as Rajgunge?"

"It is impossible, Captain Brace. I would help you, but I should bring down destruction on myself and people."

"Then you will lend us a dhooly for this man, and people to carry him?"

"No. They would not carry him, or, if they did, they would halt on the road and attack you when you were not prepared. An evil spirit for you and yours has been going through the land for months, and now the fire has sprung up all round."

Brace turned from him, and his face looked fixed and stern.

"Listen," said the rajah, laying a hand upon his arm; "it would be madness to move that man. Ask the doctor. The man would be dead before you were half-way there."

"I'm afraid so," said the doctor, sadly.

"Leave him, then, with me. I give you my word that I will protect him. I sent for you all to come here, so that you might be safe. Stay."

Brace was silent for a few moments, and then he held out his hand to the rajah.

"Thank you," he said. "Forgive me for doubting you, but I cannot stay."

"I tell you that you are going to your death," whispered the rajah, earnestly. "The whole city is in revolt against your people; the sepoy regiment has slain all its officers, and your own men are scattered Heaven knows where."

"How do you know?" said Brace, fiercely.

"Those men I was speaking with have ridden over from the town. They just gave me the news."

Brace looked at the fierce-looking fellows, and knew that they were watching us intently.

"I will gladly take your offer for my man," said Brace at last.

"And you yourselves?" said the rajah, eagerly.

Brace turned to us.

"What do you say?" he said.

"I shall follow my captain," replied Haynes.

"Doctor?"

"I am an Englishman," he said quietly.

Brace looked at me.

"Vincent!" he said, in a low hurried voice. "We have a painful tramp before us, and in all probability the buggies will not come to meet us. You are young and not used to such work as we have before us. The doctor will give you a few instructions, so you shall stop and look after Denny."

I don't know how it was—I make no professions of being brave, but a strange feeling of exaltation came over me then, and I said quickly—

"Don't make me feel like a coward. I cannot stay; I must go with you."

He looked at me fixedly for a few moments, and then turned to the rajah.

"Give us bread and wine," he said.

The rajah pointed toward his house, but Brace refused to turn, and, in obedience to a command, a couple of men were sent in, and directly after three of the chiefs servants hurried out with refreshments and handed them to us.

We partook sparingly, and as we ate and drank Brace whispered—

"See, all of you, that you have plenty of ball cartridges."

The order was needless, for we were all well supplied; and, five minutes later, a brief and distant leave-taking followed, and, shouldering our pieces, we set off, through the hot afternoon sunshine, to try and follow the track to the road. This reached, it would be one steady descent to Rajgunge, but, as we afterwards owned, not one of us believed that we should reach it alive.

————————————————————————————————————

Note 1. Budmashes are outlaws, footpads.

Note 2. Hathees are elephants.



CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

"Seems too bad to leave my patient," said the doctor. "Am I doing right?"

"You have dressed his wounds, and we are going to get help for him," replied Brace.

"I hope so," muttered the doctor. And then we toiled on and on, under the blazing sun, with our pieces growing so hot that they scorched our shoulders, but he man made a complaint, and two and two we tramped on, keeping a sharp look-out for the danger that might spring up at any moment.

"We must chance an ambuscade," said Brace, quietly. "If we are attacked, and there is cover to be had, follow me to it at once. We four, with these rifles, ought to keep a pretty good party at bay. By the way, always hold your left hand barrels in reserve. We may want them to stop a rush."

My recollection of that march is as that of some feverish dream; the sun came down with terrible power, and that which had been beautiful in the morning, from the howdah of an elephant, was now gloomy, painful, and apparently endless. Twice over we found that we had strayed from the track, and I had to turn and go watchfully back till we could see the great circular impressions of the elephants' feet, and at last we reached the spot from whence we had started in the morning. There was the litter left by the rajah's men when they had struck the shelter-tent, and followed us; there were the elephants' footprints, and the marks of the stakes. But there was no sign of that which I had fondly hoped, in my parched and footsore state, might be in waiting—a couple of vehicles, ready to take us back. All was silent save the cry of a hawk soaring round and round in the blue sky, and once there came the sharp shriek of a jay.

We had now reached the road along whose dusty side we steadily trudged on, till we came in sight of Rajgunge, far away below us, and now bathed in the warm, ruddy glow of the setting sun.

We involuntarily halted, and, after a sharp look round for danger, stood gazing at the beautiful city, so calm and peaceful, with the golden riband-like river curving round in the evening glow, that it was impossible to think that anything could be wrong.

In fear of such a catastrophe, we looked forward to seeing the smoke rising from a conflagration. But no; there was the faint haze caused by the dust trampled up by many thousand feet, and softening the outline of some of the dazzling white buildings. That was all.

"Can it be possible?" said the doctor at last, after he had gazed through the little field-glass handed to him by Brace. "One could fancy it was all a false alarm, and that poor Denny's injuries were the result of some troubles in the bazaar."

"Hist! quick!" I said sharply; and I pointed to a cloud of dust far away before us.

"Our men!"

But as the words were spoken, we caught sight of the glint of steel just above the dust cloud; and knowing, as we did, that they were lance-points, we obeyed a sign from Brace, and took refuge among the trees by the roadside.

We were none too soon, for the cloud swept nearer, and, headed by a splendidly mounted man in a yellow caftan, belted with a rich cashmere shawl, about a couple of dozen white-clothed troopers swept by, and disappeared as they had come, in a cloud of dust.

"What are they?" said the doctor, inquiringly.

"Soldiers of some irregular regiment," replied Brace, looking after the horsemen thoughtfully.

"Then there is no reason why they may not be friends," I said.

"Where is their regular officer, then?" said Brace, drily. "They would not be led by a man like the one we saw."

The opinion was unanswerable, and we tramped on along the dusty road, wearied out, but kept going by the excitement; till, coming upon a group of people, whose appearance suggested that they had journeyed from the city, Brace stopped them to question them about the state of the place.

For answer they rushed by us, and pursued their way, an action telling pretty plainly that some great change must have taken place, or these people would have been obsequious to a degree.

The sun went down, but the heat was as great as ever; and feeling at times as if I must drop, I kept on that weary tramp. Then darkness fell, the great stars came out, and feeling that our prospects would be better of getting unnoticed into the city, now not very distant, we took heart, and tramped forward in regular military time, the swing of the march seeming to help us forward.